It is easy, I guess, when you spend your days surrounded by people in power and being privy to some of their secrets, to think that some of their importance rubs off on you.
As a young reporter, I was in awe of the Senate and its power to compel government officials to attend hearings (and later have hypertension and need wheelchairs at them) and I was pretty proud to have a Senate media pass and a jacket with the Senate seal that a senator gave away one Christmas.
But that passes pretty quickly, or ought to, especially with newsrooms regularly transferring reporters to other beats precisely to avoid the familiarity that could lead to ethical problems down the line.
Familiarity and fascination with a government institution is one thing, but acting like a caricature of the people you cover is another thing entirely.
You might not have seen it, but a reporter for a Cebu City newspaper was caught on video slapping a resident of Barangay Pasil in Cebu for being outside without a face mask and that video went viral today.
According to my spotty Bisaya (and my asking around), he also slapped three other women who were arguably inside their own homes, or at least within their own properties, while he was tagging along on a Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency operation in that part of the city.
He has since apologized, saying in a Facebook Live broadcast on his page that he lost his temper at people not following health protocols during a pandemic.
It may be true. We're all frustrated and angry after spending a year in quarantine, but it may also be that he felt invincible in the company of PDEA agents.
Invincible enough, at least, to know that the women he slapped would not slap back.
The same reporter was among the Cebu media who rode along to the raid on the University of San Carlos last month in what police still call a rescue operation for Lumad children who were allegedly being trained to be child warriors of the New People's Army.
While his coverage of that operation can be attributed to excitement or to lack of information in a developing story, there is no justification for what he did this time.
One of the few ethical guidelines that we have is to minimize harm, and, while that usually refers to the the reports we make, that should logically also apply to not causing actual harm by slapping someone in the face.
Just as grave is his crossing a line—slanting stories in favor of the government and the police is an editorial call and a matter of perspective, but this is not up to debate—by actively harming a member of the public we are supposed to inform and empower.
It was a craven betrayal of our duty to be a check on abuse and of the idea that what we do is a public service.